Paris Saint-Germain Shocked In French Cup

Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain were stunned 2-1 by last-place Guingamp in the French League Cup quarter finals.

It was only their second loss in all competitions for PSG in the 2018-19 campaign. There only previous loss coming at Anfield against Liverpool in the Champions League.

The hosts on Wednesday appeared to have the situation well in hand. After Neymar scored a header in the 63rd minute to open the scoring.

But PSG grew complacent and an aggressive Guingamp forced the home side to commit a pair of fouls that proved fatal to PSG’s hopes of a sweep of domestic titles.

The first, in the 81st minute, was converted by Yeni N’Gbakoto. While Marcus Thuram, son of legendary French international Lilian Thuram, got the winning goal from the spot in the third minute of stoppage time.

Thomas Tuchel said his Paris Saint-Germain side lacked “hunger” after they were shocked.

PSG conceded three penalties in the game, two of which were converted as they fell to their first domestic loss of the season.

Neymar put the hosts 1-0 up at the Parc des Princes just after the hour. But Yeni Ngbakoto equalised from the spot in the 81st minute before Marcus Thuram, who had earlier missed a spot-kick, netted the winner from 12 yards deep into stoppage time.

Tuchel believes his side, who are 13 points clear at the top of Ligue 1, can learn from the defeat.

“I do not know if it’s deserved. We had a lot of chances. We played honestly with too much confidence. It’s hard to lose this match with three penalties. It’s a bit weird. The second seems questionable. There was nothing [there], it is a [normal] contact between the two players.

“They entered our box three times and won three penalties. We didn’t play with the necessary hunger. We lost the possibility of winning a trophy tonight. But in each defeat, there are things you can learn. It’s hard, but it’s necessary to keep growing, I hope it’s just an accident. We have to play with more consistency, we didn’t put the right ingredients in. We were too relaxed.”

The defeat means PSG will lose their grip on the Coupe de la Ligue having won the tournament for the last five seasons.

It was their first domestic cup defeat in almost five years as they are also four-time defending champions of the Coupe de France.

Guingamp are bottom of the Ligue 1 table and went into the clash having not won an away game at PSG since 2001.

PSG should, on paper, have cruised to victory after starting a strong team that included Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Angel Di Maria, Julian Draxler and Thiago Silva.

They will be back in action on Saturday in Ligue 1 when they visit Amiens.

Guingamp now join Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Monaco in the last four of the Coupe de la Ligue.